Day 13: 39.3 miles

Torquay, Teign Valley, Torquay.
Wow thats 1000... well actually its over 1000, but I'm not one to brag!
Pretty hard going today after yesterday, my legs were knackered. Pretty satisfied with hitting the 1000 mile mark though, I'll never shudder at the thought of a quick treck down the shops again!
I'll put up the photos of Buttmans escalator injuries tomorrow (always good for a laugh!) along with some of the more recent photos that I couldn't get on while I was travelling.

Day 12: 36.8 Miles

Plymouth, Totness, Torquay.
The ferry was two hours late into port, but the weather was OK so it was nice to spend a little time on deck. I was sorely tempted to get into the car with Dad and Derek (dads mate who came to get him) but I thought that would be bad karma... plus there was no space ;)
The ride today was by far as difficult as any we did in Spain. OK, in Spain you have bloody grrt mountains, but the roads are reasonable in that they tend to snake up the mountain fairly gradually. One day we spent most of the day going up and were rewarded with a 10k free ride the other side. By contrast the roads around here are up and down like a Devon whores draws on Payday. Real steep incline, real steep decline (repeat as necessary)
Still, I got a nice surprise when I got home and did the Maths. I have now done 972.67 miles, I thought it was around 900. So to celebrate my dad and I are going to ride to Teign Valley for lunch tomorrow. That will take me over the 1000, and we get to finish what we started together..... ahhhhhhh.

Day 11: Booze houndin

In true holiday manner, the weather chose today to break. What a gorgeous day.
We wiled away a few hours trapsing round the local boozariums looking for the best deals on Brandy. There are two particularly fine Spanish brandies "Carlos I" and "Cardinal Mendoza". The crossing was extreemly smooth, though pretty sullen on my behalf. You know what its like, you have a great holiday, di lots of cool stuff then get back and its like nothing changed. They did have Bombay Saphire on the Ferry though, so thats ok then!

Day 10: 12.31 miles

Had a great potter around today. Also managed to feed my growing sordid fish addiction. Spain is a beautiful country, fantastic scenery, super friendly people & great food. Wish I had listened to Biv & Maria talk more so I was better with the lingo!

Day 9: Were off!

Well we are here in Santandare. Theres a ferry back to Plymouth tomorrow, and if theres space we´re on it! I haven´t done 1000 miles yet so I´m goin to finish up by cycling from Plymouth to Bristol when we get back. That gives you roughly till Thursday to finish writing those cheques to us for Cancer Research! Dads OK though as he did over 500km in Ferrara following the waterways with cousin Ori. So hís conscience is clear! I´m pretty sad its all over really, I´m even sadder that we had to finish in Spain like this, but the cycling here just wasn´t any fun, in fact it was just downright dangerous. Maybe it would have been better in another part of Spain. I have a lot of photos to put up but this internet cafe only has ´98 so I cant get them off my camera. See you back in Blighty!

Newsflash: Buttman in Escalator horror

Actually I laughed so hard I was nearly sick through my nose. We were going up to the platform in Bilbao to catch the train to Santandare. I went to the top of the escalator with my bike then suddenly hear this massive crash. Dad is at the bottom of the escalator with his bike being pulled away from him and him still rooted in the same place at the bottom holding on. He managed to stay like that for a good few seconds with the bike bumping up the escalator steps and him holding onto it for dear life from the safety of solid ground, before the whole thing just fell in on him and he ended up sat on the escalator with the bike on top of him. Reseigned to the fact there was no graceful way to resolve the situation he just rode the escalator to the top like that, whilst I carried out my duty as a loving son and laughed my ass off whilst frantically searching for my camera.

Day 8: Loads of miles...

This is getting Silly. In France the lorries and cars were really considerate they would slow down or give you a wide berth. Here they seem to delight in getting as close as they can. With that and the general state of the roads and weather we decided to jump on a train to Santandare (or final destination) Bilbao just seemed really industrialised so no big whoop missing out on that.

Day 7: 30.79 miles

Debe, Lekeito, Gernika-Lumo. Whose idea was it to put the Pyranees right next to the coast? Mountainous so our avg is down to 7mph. Really tough going and rain to boot! Its really not a lot of fun whith the bloody lorries playing chicken :(

Day 6: 28.3 Hectic miles

Biarritz, San Sebastian, Debe. bloody hell! The road we were following turned into a nightmare, soon as we got into Spain. Mountainous & trucks really making it hard. They dont leave space like in France. Eventually got train to Debe & small roads.